Friday, August 31, 2012

My Guest Post at JustRomanticSuspense.com

Wow!What a cool surprise.I subscribe to something called Google Alerts, which sends an email to me every day with a link to everything new on the web for my keywords or phrases. Imagine my surprise when the link that came from Google for my key phrase "romantic suspense" was my own guest posting at JustRomanticSuspense.com

It starts like this:

"I grew up in Africa, and like other
fiction authors, I write about things that have made a lasting impression on me,
whether they are real or imagined. Something about a place I've visited—was it
spooky? Did a shiver run through me for no apparent reason when I was there?
Maybe it took place in a dream—a romantic tryst with an unbelievably gorgeous
man, perhaps… Or was it something sinister I witnessed?"

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

I am thrilled to have been interviewed by Akinyi, Princess of K'Orinda-Yimbo on Author Me Professional--

APKY/AMP: Hello Trish, and thank you for being with us at AuthorMeProfessionals. Please tell us something about yourself and how you came to be a writer. What inspired you to write your first book?First I'd like to say hi to the readers, and a big thank you to Akinyi for inviting me.Africa is vibrant, violent, savage and mystical. It pulses with its own unique rhythms and energy. Growing up there, one cannot help having a unique outlook on life, and a vivid imagination. I always loved to write, but it wasn't until 1990 that I decided to attempt my first novel. That was it. I was smitten. Once I had finished that one, I started another, and after that, another. Those first few novels were a learning curve, and I was ecstatic when WAY OUT OF LINE (Vol.1) was published in 2002.APKY/AMP: Wow. I have to say this, Trish: of all the dozens of interviews we’ve conducted you’re definitely the first one who starts out by thanking the most important people for an author – the readers! Now tell us, what genre do you generally write and have you considered other genres?I love to read suspense novels, but I am also a romantic at heart, so romantic suspense works best for me. My redneck series also has a good dose of comedy thrown in, and has been great fun to write. I haven't tried any other genres –I'm satisfied with my choice.To read the rest, go to:

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

After
Katrina, Time Magazine ran an online article in which it stated the Louisiana
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which runs the New Orleans
animal shelter, estimated that of 70,000 pets that remained in the city during
the storm, only 15,000 were rescued. On top of that, only 20 percent of the rescued animals were reunited with their owners.

September is national Preparedness Month. Anyone who
loves animals hates to see statistics like that, so it makes sense to include your pets in the preparations you make for any kind of disaster. This is imperative if you live in an area where tornadoes and hurricanes, even fires and earthquakes could happen.

Here are some tips for pet
owners who may find themselves in the path of a hurricane:

--- Keep a traveling
crate handy for each of your animals, complete with clean bedding and food and water bowls.

--- Keep a printout in your car of your pet's
medical records and rabies' tags. Some hotels may request such documentation.

--- Make sure you have enough food and water set aside. The Humane Society of the United States suggests you have a five- to seven-day supply of food and water for each
pet.

--- Keep your pet’s medications all together in a portable container
so you won’t forget any of them if you have to evacuate in a hurry.

--- Ask your veterinarian about tranquilizers
or mood stabilizers, and purchase them ahead of time if you think your pets may
be traumatized in a storm or if you have to move them.

--- Pack a box with cleanup supplies—litter box, litter and scoop for
cats and plastic bags for dogs—and keep it in your car, together with extra leashes and comfort items like treats and toys.

--- Research and make a list of hotels that take pets, or ask a family member or friend who lives outside the
disaster zone if they will allow you to bring your pets and stay for a while in the event of a disaster.
Alternatively, find out if there are any emergency shelters that will allow you
to bring your pets. Most of them do not.

--- If you find an emergency animal shelter, be aware that the pet owner is usually responsible for the animal's food
and water, and exercise periods/potty time.

--- If you have
large livestock like horses or cows, make arrangements well ahead of time to
move them to higher ground and/or a safer area.

Sunday, August 26, 2012

I think most people in the world would agree that mothers
are amazing creatures. Their love and sacrifice for their children surpasses
all other love.

I just lost my mother, and although she lived on the other
side of the world, I will miss so many things about her. I'll miss her wise
advice, her beautiful sense of humor, her knowledge, and her unconditional
love.

Most fiction writers know that a mother is someone who makes
us what we are, and they include information about their characters' mothers to
help the readers understand them better.

In Redneck P.I., Twila gets that awful phone call in the
middle of the night to tell her that her mother has been murdered. The event changes
the course of her life when she decides to make it her mission to find her
mother's killers and bring them to justice. In the sequel, Kickassitude, (to be released in March 2013) she
has moved back to her home town and everything she does is meant to lead her
closer to the killers.

In Way Out of Line, Hal's parents have been killed in a car
crash, and he is thankful his mother is spared the pain of seeing him go to prison. Trent's mother is a little
overbearing, but only because she loves and wants the best for her teenage
daughter. When Trent is kidnapped by a militant group and taken to Africa, her
mother never gives up hope that Trent is alive.

In the book I'm currently working on, Impassioned, veterinarian Riley Shaughnessy desperately wishes her mother hadn't died of cancer so many years previously.

So although it isn't mother's day, I salute mothers all over
the world. You are amazing creatures.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

My inspiration for writing historical fantasy romance

I was kind of a strange kid, especially for a girl. I didn’t
dream of being a princess getting rescued by a prince. I wanted to be able to
take care of myself. My favorite things weren’t dolls or frilly dresses, but
swords and forests filled with supernatural creatures like vampires, werewolves
and shapeshifting faeries and gods. When I was introduced to myths and
characters like Artemis the Huntress, Morrigan the Battle Goddess and the real
life, fierce Celtic queen, Boudica, I had found what I was looking for. There
are no helpless princesses in this group of females.

My first look into the fascinating world of mythology was in
English class when the subject was Greek mythology. I still have my well-worn
copy of Edith Hamilton’s Mythology of Greek and Norse myths. I was hooked.
Later I became fascinated with the ancient Celts and their myths, most notably
King Arthur, the Welsh tales of the Mabinogion and the Irish myths of the
Tuatha de Danaan and the Fianna.

My fascination with the ancient Celts has to do with their
connection to the faery realm and their mysterious nature—since they were an
oral society we really don’t know much about them, but archeological evidence
points to a superior society. I like filling in the missing pieces, much like a
jigsaw puzzle, and bring to life these long ago, magical places and people that
fill our imagination.

All of this inspired me to write historical fantasy. I feel
a connection to little known time periods—ancient on up to the Dark Ages, time
periods that abound in myth when magic was a real possibility. I can mix my
love of the supernatural and mythology with my other love for obscure history
and it seems like a natural fit. Otherworldly creatures fit perfectly with time
periods that are surrounded in myth and mystery. And when modern life gets too
complicated, I look forward to escaping into the places I’ve created.

Saturday, August 4, 2012

I read as many best selling suspense and romantic suspense novels as I possibly can, and work hard to learn something from each and every one.

My most favorite author of all time is Wilbur Smith. He writes what I can only define as exxxtreme romantic suspense, although actually, his books cannot formally fit into the romance genre, as they don't necessarily have a happy ending. They are immoderate, intense, terrible, wonderful, exceptional and graphically passionate. Maybe they are so vivid because he comes from Africa, like me, and Africa is a very vibrant place. It's the first thing that always hits me when I go back to visit. There's a unique pulse to it, and even the colors are brighter.

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell has to be my most favorite love story of all time. Now that I live in the south and have visited some of the places she wrote about, it has really come alive for me. It too, cannot be termed a romance in the true sense of the book world.

Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak comes a close third. Maybe I just like sad endings? I don't write them, though. I like my heros and heroines to get together in the end.

I've read and enjoyed romantic suspense novels by plenty of other authors, but I'd love to get some recommendations from other readers and writers, so I can expand my knowledge of romantic suspense, and hopefully keep improving as a writer.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Can a teenaged girl find happiness solving
crimes and driving older men crazy? Find
the answer to this and other thought provoking questions in The War This Side
of Heaven, a trilogy and continuing series by Sharon Evans.

In a romance novel, there must be
trouble in paradise. With conflict being
a necessity, tension is heightened and romance becomes even more exciting when
crime and mystery play a part.

From earliest childhood, I have
loved the Mystery genre, reading books that I wasn’t old enough to check out
from the library, eyes glued to the TV watching Charlie Chan, Perry Mason and
many of the other detective thrillers.
But as I grew older and developed many crushes and began being
heartbroken on a regular basis, I added to my reading interests Gothic romance
novels, beginning with Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. Then, when I began writing my own romance
novel, it was only fitting that murder and suspense play a major part.

In The War This Side of Heaven,
I first patterned my heroine after myself.
She is what I might have been, ‘If I knew then what I know now.’ This way I could create a world in which I
could have all manner of adventures that would never come my way. The love interest, which has changed since I
first began writing, reflects the ideals painted for me in the entertainment I
have always enjoyed. He is rich,
handsome and mysterious. As I matured
and changed, so did my characters and my story.
And when writing became a serious venture and not just an escape to a
fantasy world, I added reality or plausibility, to make my characters really
come alive.

With the desire to make my
characters and story live, The War This Side of Heaven became highly
detailed and grew into a trilogy; it will also be an ongoing series. The After School Murders is the first
book and should be released in September of 2012.